By STUART GROSKREUTZ
Wednesday, October 19, 2011

ROSEVILLE - An otherwise strong second half helped the Stillwater football team withstand a furious rally in the final few minutes as the Ponies held off Roseville 28-25 in Friday's Suburban East Conference football game.
The Raiders scored two touchdowns in the last four minutes and nearly regained possession on an on-side kick before the Stillwater faithful could exhale prior to the obligatory final snap to run out the clock.

The Ponies (5-2 SEC, 5-2) overcame a three-point halftime deficit with three second-half touchdowns to build a seemingly safe 28-10 lead with less than six minutes remaining. Roseville (2-5, 2-5) charged back behind talented sophomore quarterback Jacques Perra and pulled within 28-25 with 14 seconds remaining.

Roseville came up with the ball on the on-side kick, but was flagged for an illegal touch and then an unsportsmanlike penalty when the Raiders showed their disagreement with the close call.

"When it comes down to it they made some nice plays, but we didn't finish on our end," Ponies coach Beau LaBore said. "We had a few opportunities to get off the field on defense and we had a few opportunities to get a few first downs and seal the thing and we didn't do that."

The Raiders have struggled to stop teams on the ground this season, but Stillwater managed just 76 yards on 19 attempts in the first half - with the bulk of those yards coming on Cartier Alexander's 32-yard touchdown run with two minutes remaining in the first quarter to tie the game at 7-all.

Roseville added a field goal in the second quarter for a 10-7 halftime lead, but the Ponies came out strong in the third quarter. Nate Ricci, Nick Anderson, Alexander and Zach Krenz each shared the load as Stillwater completed a 10-play scoring drive that covered 50 yards - all on the ground - to start the second half. Anderson scored on a pitch covering 19 yards for the touchdown with seven minutes left in the third.

"It was a good drive to start the third quarter and we've done that several times now. It's nice to see that take place," LaBore said. "The most important thing is we have to start putting some of those third-quarter drives in the first quarter."

The message at halftime was simple and the Ponies executed to grab the lead.

"Get lower, use your shoulder pads and play football," LaBore said of the halftime focus. "I think we came out a little bit flat and I think we left seven points on the field in the first quarter again. We had opportunities to get points and didn't. We needed to play more physical shoulder-pad football and it took us a while to get that going.

"We put it one our guys. We said we're going to come out and we're going to put it under center and we're going to pound the ball. We're going to run the ball between the tackles and we're going to have to find a way to open up some creases and get our backs through the holes. Our backs also need to be a little more patient and they need to run the holes. We missed a lot of holes as running backs in the first half."

Stillwater limited the Raiders to just one first down in the third quarter and added to its lead two minutes into the fourth quarter as Ricci scampered in from 22 yards out for a 21-10 lead after Tait Delahunt added the third of his four extra-point kicks.

Ricci, who lined up at quarterback, running back and receiver, accounted for 78 of Stillwater's 88 yards drive. The versatile junior finished with 22 rushes for 126 yards and caught two passes for 52 yards. He also completed 4 of 8 passes for 48 yards, including a 34-yard scoring hook-up with Joshua Weess for a 28-10 lead with just 5:48 remaining in the game, and added an interception for good measure.

Emeche Wells, who left the game with an injury earlier in the fourth quarter, returned to cap a 75-yard scoring drive with a 1-yard touchdown as the Raiders cut the deficit to 28-18 with 3:29 remaining.

The Ponies fumbled the ball back with about two minutes remaining and Roseville quickly drove 63 yards in seven plays to pull within 28-25 after Perra found Jordon Skinner for a 15-yard touchdown with 14 seconds remaining.

"Just like any situation, if we execute and we block and tackle and take care of the football, we'll be just fine," LaBore said. "We didn't do that a couple of times in the fourth quarter and opened up the opportunity for them to come back."

Stillwater outgained the Raiders 251-78 on the ground, but the passing numbers were a stark contrast as Roseville racked up 243 of its 321 total yards through the air, compared to just 100 passing yards for the Ponies.

"They had a nice game plan and their guys are gritty," LaBore said. "They know that our focus is to run the ball first and foremost and those guys have some pretty good athletes to make sure you don't get behind and come over the top. They had a nice game plan and they played well. I'm happy that we stuck with the run game and found a way to open up some creases and move the ball better in the third and fourth quarter.

"It was nice to see that our offense was able to establish some things in the third quarter and I think that was the difference tonight. We just need to find a way to get that taking place earlier in the game."

The numbers for Perra and the Raiders could have been much better if not for several dropped passes. Even with those missed opportunities, Perra completed 18 of 39 passes with two touchdowns.

"(Perra) is very good and I know that their coaches think that he's very good," LaBore said. "He's not only a good thrower, but he's smart and if he becomes more athletic he's really going to be a headache."

Wells led the way with four catches for 83 yards, but was held to just four rushes for 17 yards.

"We were looking for him in a lot of different places, special teams, defense and offense, and I think our players did pretty good job with him overall," LaBore said. "They move him around much like we move Nate (Ricci) around and it's not easy to prepare for something like that. Overall, we were able to contain him a little bit and that's a job well done by our defense."

Alexander finished with 56 rushing yards on six carries while Anderson added 15 rushes for 55 yards for a more diversified ground attack. Alexander's primary duties are on the defensive line, especially after a knee injury kept him out of the lineup for the first half of the season, but he provides a nice change of pace.

"He missed the first month of the season and as good of an athlete as he is, you can't just send him in there," LaBore said. "First, is take care of his business on defense and make sure he knows what he's doing on defense and secondly, he needs to know what he's doing on offense and then finally he had to get his legs and conditioning back. It was a slow, steady progression that we wanted to get him back into the swing of things and he's in midseason form by now."

Krenz led a balanced Stillwater defense with seven solo tackles and one assist for 15 defensive points. Mike Wicker and Sam Hodnefield added five solo tackles apiece while Alexander and Brynestad each finished with four. Wicker also provided five assisted tackles with Hodnefield and Alexander adding four each.

The last four minutes of Friday's game was hectic, which also could describe the next two weeks for the Ponies, who could play as many as four games in 16 days. Stillwater hosts Hastings in the regular season finale on Wednesday and will likely host a Section 2AAAAA quarterfinal game on Oct. 25.

"Individual and group time kind of shrinks down and it becomes a lot of team time," LaBore said. "We hope that the foundation you poured over the summer and during two-a-days and the beginning of the season is going to stand up to the rush of four games in 16 days."

Stillwater: 7-0-7-14 - 28
Roseville: 7-3-0-15 - 25

Ros - Zack Moriarty 12 pass from Jacques Perra (Sam Loveland kick) 7:13.
St - Cartier Alexander 32 run (Tait Delahunt kick) 1:52.
Ros - FG Loveland 34, 7:33.
St - Nick Anderson 19 run (Delahunt kick) 6:58.
St - Nate Ricci 22 run (Delahunt kick) 10:08.
St - Josh Weess 34 pass from Ricci (Delahunt kick) 5:48.
Ros - Emeche Wells 1 run (Wells from Perra) 3:29.
Ros - Jordon Skinner 15 from Perra (Loveland kick) 0:14.

Team stats

First downs: St 18, Ros 20
Rushes-yards: St 48-251, Ros 24-78
Passing yards: St 100, Ros 243
Total yards: St 351, Ros 321
Comp-Att-Int: St 6-12-0, Ros 18-39-1
Fumbles/lost: St 1/1, Ros 5/0
Penalties/yards: St 5/45, Ros 6/55
Punts/avg: St 3/23.7, Ros 5/29.8

Individual statistics

Rushing - St: Nate Ricci 22-126, Cartier Alexander 6-56, Nick Anderson 15-55, Zach Krenz 4-14 and team 1-0; Ros: Matthew Peckham 12-67, Emeche Wells 4-17 and Jacques Perra 8-(-6).

Passing (com-att-yds-td-int) - St: Nate Ricci 4-8-48-1-0 and Aaron Romportl 2-4-52-0-0; Ros: Jacques Perra 18-39-243-2-1.

Receiving - St: Nate Ricci 2-52, Joshua Weess 1-34, Austin Holmberg 1-12, Charlie Register 1-2 and Nick Anderson 1-0; Ros: Emeche Wells 4-83, Zack Moriarty 6-77, Matthew Peckham 3-41, Jordon Skinner 2-22, Jacob Brandt 2-14 and Dale Miller 1-6.

Kickoff returns - St: Billy Wagner 1-20 and Zac Houle 1-8; Ros: none.

Punt returns - St: Nate Ricci 1-4 and Charlie Register 1-(-1); Ros: Zack Moriarty 1-6.

Interceptions - St: Nate Ricci 1-0; Ros: none.

Fumble recoveries - St: none; Ros: NA.